


About A Boy

by frankiesin



Series: no one here is cis [7]
Category: Against Me!, Bandom, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship, Gen, Mild Spoilers, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 19:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10725555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankiesin/pseuds/frankiesin
Summary: Best friends are helpful when you've got a crush on a guy you just met.(yet another Rywalk ficlet in the nohic universe)





	About A Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Me, uploading this after midnight even though there are mild nohic spoilers in it: There Are No Rules.

Backstage was quiet, for once. Jon and Laura were alone, because it was two in the afternoon and no one in Evansville was so desperate for a drink that they’d be willing to come to a bar in the middle of the day. Laura had her guitar in her lap, and was messing around with a few chords for a song she’d been writing. Jon was trying to figure out how to bring up Ryan. 

 

Jon had met Ryan two days ago at a party, kind of. Jon had been walking from one party (which was getting to be a bunch of drunk and horny college kids and therefore no longer his scene) to another when he’d noticed a boy walking through the snow in nothing but a thin white hoodie. He’d looked cold and wary of everyone, and so Jon had been as friendly as he could to try and get the guy inside. 

 

The guy had been Ryan, and he’d had a backpack on him the entire time they’d hung out on a corner of someone’s couch. Ryan was attractive, and the kind of mysterious that Jon knew could only come from English majors with broken homes and too much angsty teenage poetry posted to their private blogs. Jon wasn’t in love, because he didn’t fall in love with just anyone, but he was intrigued. He wanted to know more. He wanted to take Ryan out on dates, and see if he was as mysterious as he seemed, or if he was just a little shy.

 

“Are you going to tell me why we’re here at two in the afternoon when I should be doing homework?” Laura asked, smacking her hand against her guitar. 

 

“I met a guy,” Jon started, and Laura let out a long, drawn out sigh. Jon flipped her off. “Shut up, not every guy I meet is one I want to date.”

 

“But this one is,” Laura said. “Because you wouldn’t come to me if he wasn’t.”

 

“I know he’s not straight,” Jon said. “I told him I was ace, so that he wouldn’t get the wrong impression and think I was one of those guys who was only interested in a few hook ups. He said he was an English major, and so I told him about the paper and how we need more people who are creative and interesting--”

 

“Of course you told him about the paper,” Laura interrupted. 

 

“--don’t interrupt me, I’m telling you a story,” Jon said. “I told him about the paper, and he seemed a little interested, but also kind of apprehensive, so I don’t know about that. The one thing I couldn’t tell him was that I’m trans. I don’t want him to end up being one of those cis gays who’re only interested in dick. I’ve met enough of those already.”

 

“Well, as someone who’s also trans, I can tell you that the best way to avoid ending up in love with someone who’s casually transphobic is to be open about it from the beginning,” Laura said. Jon knew he’d gone to the right person. Laura was open about her gender and her sexuality, and she refused to take shit from anyone about it. She was the frontwoman in a band and her band was writing an album about a transwoman getting out of her backwards-ass town in middle America. Jon had heard the two demos they’d finished, and they were fantastic. 

 

Unlike Laura, Jon was still trying to be confident about who he was. His parents were accepting, he’d been on hormones since the day he turned eighteen, and it had been over a year since someone misgendered him, but there were way too many cis gay guys who wrote him off when they realised he was trans. Jon didn’t want Ryan to be one of those. 

 

“How, though?” Jon asked. “I can’t just text him and be like, hey, I know you’re probably in class or doing something that needs your full attention now, but I just wanted to let you know I’m trans and I don’t have a dick. Hope that doesn’t throw you off!”

 

“You don’t have to be brash about it,” Laura said. 

 

“Then how?” Jon said. “Because cis people can be really dense, sometimes. Especially when it comes to transgender issues.”

 

“Well, how do you know that Ryan’s cis?” Laura countered. She had a good point. Jon shrugged. He didn’t know if Ryan was cis, or even if Ryan identified as a guy. He hadn’t asked. Laura nodded, like she could read Jon’s mind. “Exactly. So, maybe Ryan isn’t cis, or even a guy. Maybe they’ll understand it more than you realise, but until you tell them, you’ll never know.”

 

“I just need an excuse,” Jon said. 

 

“My band and a few others are having a show in about a month,” Laura offered. “Invite Ryan to that, and then when I come on and start screaming about how I’m a real woman and TERF’s can all choke, impress them by saying that you’re friends with the frontwoman and that the two of us became friends because we were the only openly trans students on campus and we were tired of the cis being ignorant.”

 

“That…” Jon said, “could actually work. And then when Ryan inevitably asks what I mean by that, I can be like, ‘surprise, I’m trans! We’re all trans! No one here is cis except maybe you!’”

 

Laura grinned at him and leaned over her guitar to mess up his hair. Jon regretted taking his beanie off, but the bar was warm inside, and he didn’t want his head to overheat. He smacked at her hand with the beanie. “It wasn’t that funny, shut up.”

 

“I wasn’t even talking,” Laura said, but stopped messing with Jon’s hair. She stretched a leg out between them. “Do you remember those kids who were at the New Year’s thing? The ones from the high school I work at?”

 

“Kind of,” Jon said. Admittedly, he didn’t remember much of New Year’s, because he’d been doing a lot that night and he’d definitely gotten crossfaded. “Didn’t one of them get really sick or something and she had to leave?”

 

“Yeah, about that,” Laura said. Her expression was serious. Jon really hoped that that girl hadn’t died or anything. He didn’t know them at all, but he knew that Laura considered that group of kids from Castle High School to be her younger siblings. “She, um, apparently she’s been having a lot of issues. And she’s in the hospital.”

 

“Like a hospital hospital, or…?” Jon trailed off, because he was pretty sure he already knew the answer. Laura nodded. It was the second one. That girl had been committed to a mental hospital. Jon leaned over Laura’s guitar and pulled her into a hug. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay. She’s gonna be okay, and all of your friends at that high school are gonna be okay, and you and Frank and the guys are going to be in a super cool band and kick ass.”

 

“I’m too young to be a mother,” Laura said. 

 

Jon laughed, because of course Laura was interpreting it that way, and then Laura was laughing too, and then they were both losing their shit in the back of an empty bar at two in the afternoon. They ended up laying on the floor next to each other, which probably wasn’t the most sanitary place to be, but it didn’t matter. 

 

Laura bumped Jon’s shoulder with her fist. “Hey, sorry for being a downer when you were trying to get a date with a guy.”

 

“It’s cool,” Jon said. “You obviously needed to get it off your chest.”

 

Laura smiled, staring up at the ceiling. “You know, if this Ryan dude turns out to be an ass, I can always cut his dick off for you.”

 

“Can I keep it?” Jon asked. 

 

Laura turned and stared at him. “What the fuck? Why would you want to keep some guy’s dismembered dick?”

 

“Uh, because I don’t have mine yet and it’d be a lot cheaper than actual, legal surgery?” Jon said. Laura shook her head and returned to staring at the ceiling. Jon bumped her shoulder. “What? My logic is totally sound.”

 

“You keep telling yourself that, Walker,” Laura said. “One day you might actually be right.”

 

“Shut up,” Jon said. He rolled over onto his side, intending to stare Laura down from above, but his binder pulled at his skin awkwardly so he went back on his back. “I’m a genius, you just haven’t realised it yet.”

 

“I know,” Laura said. “And one day when we’re all old and famous you’ll skater boy me at some awards ceremony and I’ll feel bad for not dealing with your dick stealing nonsense.”

 

Jon turned his head and stared her down. The floor smelled vaguely of sweat. “I can’t believe you just made a reference to  _ Avril Lavigne _ . Who are you?”

 

“Your friend who gives you relationship advice while we lie on a shitty floor,” Laura said. “Speaking of, how’re you feeling about asking out your Ryan now? Better, or do I need to pull out the pompoms and remind you that trans fuckers do it better?”

 

Jon laughed. “I’m good. I’ll text them and invite them to the show once we’re done here.”

 

Laura booped Jon’s nose and did her stage-scowl. “You better, Walker, or I’m gonna come to your dorm and kick your ass.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed, and feel free to yell at me!


End file.
